Madeline Island, Part 3: The Class

After warping all the looms at Woods Hall and spending a little time exploring Madeline Island, we were ready to go! We had several students from the island and a few that came from afar, to take our five-day Southwestern-style Tapestry Weaving Class. Some of them had decades of weaving experience, while others were complete beginners.

We spent the first day of class tying up looms and prepping yarns, then dove into several days of tapestry weaving! The photos below will walk you through this wonderful experience. Enjoy!

Ciao,
Teresa

The studio all ready for the students to arrive!

The studio after a few days of weaving.

Cindy, of Fly Away Farms on Madeline Island, incorporated building techniques, ojos, hatching, pic-n-pick and wavy line to create this beautiful freeform weaving. I love her choice of colors! You can see the progression of her weaving throughout the days in the photos on the left.

This was Jim’s first tapestry! He focused on vertical joints and angles, while incorporating some building and shuttle work. He had a strong beat, creating a nice tightly packed weave. There is one photo for each day, leading to a fantastic finished sampler.

Kate started out with building techniques, creating a sort of landscape with a moon. She progressed into angles and hatching, weaving a a set of mountains with a moon behind clouds. (Oddly enough, this portion looked almost exactly like the full moon over Taos Mountain just a few days later.) She finished the class off by exploring vertical joints. This was Kate’s first tapestry!

Missy played around with building, shuttle work, ojos and hatching to create this beautiful water/sky (and islands) scene. Missy has taken several classes with me before and each time I am amazed by the beautiful work she creates!

Nancy, owner of the Pinehurst Inn in Bayfield, took the ferry to class every day. (Wonderful!) She started out her weaving by exploring building techniques and progressed into angles. By the end of class she had incorporated vertical joints, pick-n-pick, wavy line and ojos… resulting in this stunning sampler.

And then there is Phil (lol)… one of the most patient people I’ve ever met. If you take a look at the photos to the left you can see the progression of Phil’s weaving(s). Day 1: Loom tied up and butterflies ready to go (It’s Phil’s 75th birthday!). Day 2: Loom #1 isn’t getting a good shed, a piece of the loom breaks, I transfer his warp to a new loom, finally deciding to cut off the first section and start fresh in the morning. Day 3: The weft its not covering the warp because the sett is different from the last loom the warp was meant for (trying to salvage the first set of tapestry was a bad idea!), we cut it off and re-thread at lunch and he precedes to weave some beautiful angles. Day 4: Phil progresses into different angles, triple-dovetail ojo’s and hatching (the loom is working beautifully… thank goodness!) Day 5: Phil decides he has learned all he can from me (smile), gets wind that there is a loom for sale, takes the ferry to the mainland drives an hour or so further, picks up the loom, brings it back to the island and finishes up the day with a quick warping tutorial. Not a bad Birthday trip if you ask me! But you should probably ask Phil…

Susan’s beautiful choice of color and quick understanding of technique reflected her years of weaving experience. She played around with angles and single dovetail while incorporating pick-n-pick and hatching to create this beauty of a sampler.

Traudi broke up her sampler into bands, incorporating different techniques in each to create the designs she wanted to explore. Using wonderful “southwestern colors”, she played around with angles, vertical joints and shuttle work to create this fantastic sampler. I especially love the the little roadrunner she incorporated into the top of the piece on the last day!

One of the evenings after class we had a wonderful barbecue on the lawn at Woods Hall!

All of our students gathered with their weavings after class! Left to right: Jim, Kate, Traudi, Susan, Missy, Nancy, Cindy and Phil.

Phil and his new loom!

A closeup of each student’s weaving. Left (top to bottom): Jim, Missy, Traudi, Cindy. Right (top to bottom): Kate, Susan, Nancy, Phil.